Thursday, November 10, 2016

Remember: the US system of governance is a machine. It's a machine that aspires to be the proverbial "immovable object". When you're the one seeking change, this machine sucks. When you're the one seeking to get things done, this machine sucks. For better or worse, it cuts both ways. When people elect the "burn it all down" candidate, that machine acts to blunt those attempts at change and getting things done.

Obama came in in 2008 promising an agenda that would include all sorts of change and transparency: how'd that work out? Is Gitmo closed? Has mass surveillance been curtailed? Have any of the people that created the banking crisis been meaningfully held to task? Are we no longer fighting endless wars? Has any meaningful change really happened that didn't start from the bottom and work its way up?

And, yeah, you might argue that Obama was fighting the House and Senate most of the way. You might argue that Trump has a Republican House and Senate to work with. Really? What does that even mean when a lot of those Congresspeople and Senators are lifers and Republicans that never really considered Trump to be Republican.

While the whackadoos may feel freer to come out from under their rocks, there's not going to be more of those CHUDs than there were Monday night. Things that happened in spite of the machine aren't going to be suddenly undone.

Am I saying things are gonna be just peachy? Am I saying some things aren't going to get worse? No. Not by a long-mile. Just saying that sometimes, you need to trust others' self-interest to keep the fire from turning into a conflagration.